Aspen Alpin Lifestyle Grindelwald Review: Is It Worth Staying Outside The Center?
Aspen Alpin Lifestyle Grindelwald Review: Is It Worth Staying Outside The Center?
Our first night in Grindelwald was at Hotel Kreuz & Post, which turned into an wonderful and unplanned rainy spa day. The central location and spa made for a great stay. For the second part of our trip, we moved out to the Aspen Alpin Lifestyle Hotel, tucked at the bottom of a ski slope just a few minutes drive from Grindelwald village.
I enjoyed the convenience of being right in town, but we also wanted to stay somewhere we could escape the crowds. An earlier version of our itinerary had us in Gimmelwald for a night at the remote Mountain Hostel with another on the top of First mountain where access by cable car only is basically cut off between 5 pm and 8 am. We also thought about staying in Wengen or Mürren to get away. In the end, the compromise was to still be in Grindelwald, but not in town.
Ultimately the quiet location worked out better than we originally planned and it was where we celebrated our engagement after the weather cleared and I was able to propose in the middle of our via ferrata climb over the Lauterbrunnen Valley.
Why We Chose The Aspen Alpin Lifestyle Hotel
There’s no shortage of hotels and chalets scattered away from the center that makes sense if you have a car. We didn’t have one, since we wanted to travel by train around Switzerland with the Swiss Travel Pass and also had the Jungfrau Travel Pass for this area.
So what worked with the Aspen’s location was that they offered a pick-up and drop-off service when checking in and out. It’s only an 8 minute drive.
In between, there was a bus going to both Grindelwald and Grindelwald Terminal that picked up right outside.
During our time, we took the bus once, when we went out in the morning, and then walked the lovely 50 minutes through the hamlet back from Grindelwald Terminal at sunset.
The surrounding landscape was a draw, but it was the outdoor hot tub with a view of the Eiger and Wetterhorn that did it for me.
If I’m going to the mountains, I’m going to specifically look for places to stay that has a hot tub or a sauna. It’s an inseparable pairing because there’s nothing better than putting on a robe and heading down to a spa after a long day of hiking. It also helps you recover for the next day.
That Hot Tub With The Mountains
The wellness center is big, taking up some 300 square meters with an alpine-style wood sauna, a steam bath, a couple of foot baths, and an area with water beds.
And this bowl that gets constantly refilled with ice to cool off after the sauna.
From inside the spa, you can disrobe and get into the waters and walk, wade, or swim right out to the outdoor hot tub. You find this design in cold places, so you can keep your towel inside and get out of the water somewhere warmer.
This is where we spent most of our time. Once at sunset, once in the evening, and then one last time the morning before we left.
We could not get enough of the view of the Eiger and Wetterhorn.
Pair the outdoor hot tub with knowing that the hotel has ski-in, ski-out access and this would be an amazing place during the winter season.
Our Big Day
We spent the first few days of our trip constantly checking the weather forecast in hopes that we’d get a sunny day and another chance to squeeze in the via ferrata. It was the one activity that kickstarted the whole trip to Switzerland. That and I could not think of a better place to propose. At least in an adventurous way that just felt right for our relationship.
After I met Begi in Kyrgyzstan, we met up again and traveled as friends across Turkey. Then there was a documentary I shot about her sister visiting the US for a chess championship. Followed by a spontaneous trip to Indonesia because she had never been to the ocean.
We started dating there and I promised her ‘a thousand adventures’ as long as we didn’t get tired of traveling.
So two days after we had originally planned to do the climb, the skies cleared, and the people at the Intersport Murren were kind enough to squeeze us into a rental slot last minute when I shared my plans.
Side note: It was all booked and backed up from the reservations that were rescheduled due to rain. If you need to rent gear, make reservations ahead of time because this activity has gotten more popular. You can read more about the via ferrata here if you’re interested in doing it.
Proposing From A Cliff
At 7 am, I got the green light by email and we rushed out the door shortly after breakfast to catch the bus to Grindelwald Terminal, train to Lauterbrunnen, bus to Stechelberg, and then the cable car to Mürren. It was a lot, but we hardly noticed the time with the scenery around us and the excitement of the climb ahead.
Once we were clipped in and passed the point of no return, I just had to find the right moment. And that just so happened to be when we were as exposed as possible standing on thin iron rungs with a 600m drop to the valley below.
You can watch the the proposal video below if you’d like.
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She said yes, we continued for another 2.5 hours to get to the end and it was still only around 12:30 pm. With time on our hands, we headed to Wengen for the cheese festival, then up to Männlichen for the Royal Walk before heading back to Grindelwald. Since we were at the Terminal already and had our pass, we decided to pop up to Eigergletscher anyway, even though we didn’t have enough time to make it Jungfraujoch.
If you’re curious, you can see our full itinerary here.
Back at the hotel, we caught an incredible sunset with the clouds returning to frame the mountains.
Dining At The Aspen Hotel
It was only when we sat down to celebrate at dinner that we realized our sore and tired we were from a whole day of climbing and hiking around. The meal at the hotel restaurant was incredible.
We had a local alpine pike-perch with a thyme risotto, and beef fillet stripes in a curry cream sauce, along with a fun little amuse bouche.
Lunch and dinner is in the Alpstube or ‘Alp Room,’ which has that tucked away refugio in the mountains vibe, especially in the day time.
There’s an incredible international wine selection here and a full bar to rival anything you’d find in town.
We enjoyed our dinner slowly and then took our drinks to finish in the lounge by the fireplace.
That would have sufficed for any night, but we had still the night time soak outside in the hot tub to look forward to.
We were happy to just sit and relax.
I did not expect to still be able to see the mountains so clearly at night, there was still light coming from somewhere.
It was a genuinely perfect way to close out our time in Grindelwald.
Our Room
Our double room had a balcony with essentially the same mountain view we had from the hot tub, just one floor up.
I liked that I could frame the mountains through the door.
And we woke up to this view everyday.
It was comfortable, modern, and had that full alpine vibe with the wood finishes throughout without feeling dated. It came with a coffee machine, kettle, and mini fridge. And a big ol’ cow rug.
The hotel has nine different room types in total, from a classic double up through multi-bedroom suites and a penthouse.
The Best Breakfast Of Our Trip
This was our favorite breakfast of the whole trip. Everything tasted genuinely fresh, but it was the croissant on our second morning that I still think about. We’d already had one the day before, but a new batch had just come out of the oven, and the waiter came by and insisted we take another, even though we still had food on our plates.
Glad we said yes. It was so buttery in exactly the right way.
After breakfast, we snuck in one last soak before we departed Grindelwald for Leukerbad, the last leg of our trip that involved even more bathing.
Put Leukerbad on your list for Switzerland if you haven’t heard about it. It a thermal bath town that’s halfway between Geneva and Grindelwald.
Final Thoughts And Booking Information
There are a couple of other places I would love to check out next time I’m in Grindelwald, but I’d happily stay here, especially if we came for skiing in the winter. The stay gave us the quiet and relaxing half of the trip we wanted after a fairly packed few days moving around. And it happened to be exactly where we needed to be the day everything I’d planned for finally came together.
You can look for packages and book directly on their website or here.
If you want to check out some of the other places on our shortlist of the villages, you can check out my spreadsheet or read my Interlaken Area Guide for a breakdown of the villages and why you should/shouldn’t stay in each one.
If you’re just starting to plan for a stay around Grindelwald or one of the other alpine villages, start with my primer + mistakes to avoid post and my activities guide so you can see what’s worth it, what you can skip, and what you need to book in advance.
Updated on July 29, 2026
